Upcoming Class Changes!

Edit: All the classes have their info up! As changes are made, we'll keep this post up to date.

So Blizzard has announced some upcoming class changes which sound especially exciting! I've included the entire text of the changes in this post, all prettied up with links for you—just click the "Continue Reading" link to see. More will be added as the info is released, of course—so keep checking back!

Please keep in mind that this list is not at all comprehensive, and subject to change. :)

Table of Contents

Death Knight

Summon Gargoyle and have swapped talent positions. The Gargoyle’s damage has increased and runic power cost per time has decreased.

– this spell no longer causes damage but just spreads diseases. is intended to be the general area attack, and has been changed to be castable on targets with no diseases on them, but does extra damage if diseases are present.

Pillar of Frost now absorbs a flat amount of damage that increases as your armor increases. It no longer boosts armor.

The Frost tree has been shuffled. Among other things, PvP talents such as are closer to the top of the tree where Blood and Unholy death knights can access them.

– this talent now procs a rather than requiring an additional button click. It works similarly to shamans’ .

and have been reduced to 3 ranks for the same benefit.

now grants armor penetration instead of expertise.

Druid

Savage Defense – this is a new passive ability. When a druid in deals a melee critical strike, the druid gains a damage shield equal to 25% of their attack power. The next hit completely removes the shield regardless of how much damage was done.

has had its bonus armor reduced to compensate for the above increase in damage mitigation.

(and similar debuffs) now reduces armor by 5%. See in the warrior update below for additional details.

– to avoid confusion, this talent has been renamed “Revitalize.” It now also works with Wild Growth.

We are also looking at increasing the sustained (not burst) damage of feral druids in Cat Form.

Hunter

Consumable ammunition has been removed from the game (!). Arrows and bullets no longer stack, but are not consumed. Ranged attack speed bonus gained from quivers and ammo bags will be preserved in a different capacity.

A new tier of hunter pet talents have been added. In particular, this allows Beastmaster hunters to improve their damage per second (DPS) with their 51 point talent.

– this talent has been reduced to 3 ranks and also grants a passive bonus to the hunter.

Careful Aim – this talent has been changed. Your , and Chimaera Shots cause the target to bleed for 10/20/30% of damage dealt for 8 sec.

– this talent has been changed. After standing still for 6 sec, you gain a 2/4/6% damage bonus to Steady, Aimed and Explosive Shot.

We are also looking to add additional trap functionality to Survival.

Mage

– this talent has been removed and replaced with a new talent that grants Replenishment (similar to Shadow priests).

We are also working on a way to give frost mages “ combos” in PvE.

We are also working on more survivability for Fire spec in PvP.

We are also working on making Spirit a more useful and interesting stat for all mages.

Paladin

– this spell is now a base ability trainable by all paladins.

– this spell now causes damage to all types of enemy targets. However, it always critical strikes undead or demon targets. This change should make sure paladin damage doesn’t drop when going from Naxxramas to later tiers of content.

now causes your and to silence targets for 3 sec. The old damage bonus of this talent has been folded into , , and .

, , and more have had their ranks reduced.

– no longer reduces the mana cost of shield spells, but now has a 50/100% chance to refresh duration.

– now also reduces the cooldown of by 10/20 seconds and increases the duration of the stun effect by 0.5/1 second.

Priest

– this spell is now a core ability available to all priests.

Discipline has access to a new talent, Power Word: Barrier. (Think of it as for your whole group).

Several area of effect (AOE) heal spells have been improved: can be cast on any groups in your raid party. ’s mana cost has been reduced. now heals for more.

Shadow priest PvP survivability has been improved: now reduces magic as well as physical damage. Dispersion now removes snares.

– this spell can now be targeted on the priest.

– this talent now reduces the cast time of and when or are cast.

We are also working to give Holy additional PvP utility.

Rogue

– instead of a self-buff, this ability can only be used when there is a bleed effect on the target. However, it has no stacks and grants a 15% damage bonus.

Warlock

now has a chance to produce Soul Shards even if the target doesn’t die.

is no longer an active ability but the talent grants the old effect to .

and have been combined into one spell.

– this Voidwalker ability is no longer channeled but has a cooldown.

Several other warlock talents have had their ranks reduced, their effects changed or removed. This list includes but is not limited to , , , , and .

Additional new talents have been added.

Warrior

Changing stances now has a much reduced cost: you lose a maximum of 20 rage (10 with ). For example, if you have 100 rage and change stances, you will have 80 rage remaining. If you have 10 rage and change stances, all of your rage is lost. In addition, we may change the penalties associated with some stances.

You now gain rage when damage done to you is absorbed, such as through a .

now causes 2/4% physical damage done.

(and similar debuffs) now reduces armor by 4% per application, and is now a single rank. Creature armor has been globally reduced so that debuffed targets should take about the same damage from physical attacks that they did before this change. The net effect should be that this debuff is slightly less mandatory in PvE and is not disproportionately more powerful against cloth targets in PvP.

We are also adding increased damage to Arms, possibly through Overpower or .

We are also looking at granting rage when the warrior blocks, dodges or parries.

Please post your comments and thoughts here! These are some pretty major changes, and I'm curious to see what you guys think.

Comments

Comment by Tourlip

Comment by OniChris

on 2009-02-05T13:26:03-06:00

Arc Mage buffs please. :)

Comment by aneper

on 2009-02-05T13:26:08-06:00

3rdwhere are the others? I am lonely...

Comment by uchihafongmaru

on 2009-02-05T13:31:15-06:00

Warlock... <Siphon Life is no longer an active ability but the talent grants the old Siphon Life effect to Corruption.>Does that mean that Corruption is like Siphon Life in 3.1.0?Lost of Damage output?

Comment by Freezen

on 2009-02-05T13:31:31-06:00

Not bad...

Comment by Xinh

on 2009-02-05T13:31:53-06:00

Priest changes ftw :D

Comment by grratyou

on 2009-02-05T13:32:42-06:00

meh a lot of people are going to wait for a few other classes such as dk and hunters but looks good so far.

Comment by L0ki

on 2009-02-05T13:32:42-06:00

Clearly it was too hard to keep a HfB rotation up *rolls eyes.

Sunder Armor (and similar debuffs) now reduces armor by 4% per application, and is now a single rank. Creature armor has been globally reduced so that debuffed targets should take about the same damage from physical attacks that they did before this change. The net effect should be that this debuff is slightly less mandatory in PvE and is not disproportionately more powerful against cloth targets in PvP.

Edit: It's still going to be a huge requirement considering the massive dps boost from 20% reduced mob armor. Oh blizzard why do you fail to understand your own game mechanics? All they did was change it from 30% to 20% off sunder and lowered mob armor, woopdedoo. Also, if the debuffed targets take the same amount of damage, how is the debuff less mandatory?

Comment by Tourlip

on 2009-02-05T13:32:42-06:00

Warlock... <Siphon Life is no longer an active ability but the talent grants the old Siphon Life effect to Corruption.>Does that mean that Corruption is like Siphon Life in 3.1.0?Lost of Damage output?

I understood this as Siphon Life talent will add Corruption the effect of health leech

Comment by Sakkura

on 2009-02-05T13:34:35-06:00

Hmm, is this a spam thread? There are a lot of threads about it already.

Comment by roflkyae

on 2009-02-05T13:35:15-06:00

that's hawt!

Comment by Nonid

on 2009-02-05T13:36:17-06:00

Damn, they are making it the easiest game ever seen. I hate it, its for beginners...

Comment by CanadianSniper

on 2009-02-05T13:38:06-06:00

They're actually focusing on giving shamans more pvp utility? YES PLEASE! :D Also loving the extra totem merges. I'm not enh but if I was enh, the spirit weapons change would have made me a very happy orc.

Comment by L0ki

on 2009-02-05T13:38:51-06:00

Damn, they are making it the easiest game ever seen. I hate it, its for beginners...

Pretty much how I feel anymore.

Comment by Wildhorn

on 2009-02-05T13:40:15-06:00

The bear form shield thing is awesome :)

Comment by warlish

on 2009-02-05T13:40:59-06:00

YES! Shamans get better in PvP! Cheers!

We are also working on giving Enhancement and Elemental more PvP utility.

Comment by Kakuzu0

Comment by LikaiKailla

on 2009-02-05T13:41:35-06:00

Totem combining FTW. Now if only they'd make the effects raid-wide instead of party-wide.

Comment by Overcome

on 2009-02-05T13:42:25-06:00

Warlock... <Siphon Life is no longer an active ability but the talent grants the old Siphon Life effect to Corruption.>Does that mean that Corruption is like Siphon Life in 3.1.0?Lost of Damage output?

I understood this as Siphon Life talent will add Corruption the effect of health leech

I think what he wants to know is will we be losing Siphon life as a damage dealing spell. I really hope not. Maybe if they buff corruptions DPS then it wouldn't be so bad.

Comment by Fizzles

on 2009-02-05T13:43:18-06:00

There's a problem with the Survival Instincts line. There is no link (should be Oomkin Form).Aimed mostly at PvE IMO, but there's a bit of PvP in there. Priests and Shamans, for example.